Negotiating without an Attorney
The answer to this question is sometimes tricky, and the honest answer is that not everyone actually needs a personal injury attorney. Most of the smaller cases where people get better right away can be negotiated successfully between an insurance adjuster and an individual. As long as you have the information that you need in order to intelligently communicate with that insurance adjuster. The insurance adjusters do this all day, every day and they talk to people left and right, negotiating claims and resolving them in the insurance company’s best interest.
Benefits of having an Attorney
If you are going to negotiate with the insurance company, I recommend that you at least talk to a personal injury attorney to make sure that you understand the process and what you should expect in certain lower value cases. But if you have a case that is more significant, and worth $25,000 or more, you probably need to talk to an attorney to determine if their services are necessary. The insurance companies assign those claims to more experienced adjusters, and the insurance companies will combat the injuries that you suffered much more vigorously. They will hire doctors to testify that you were not injured as much as you claim you were injured or they will say that those medical expenses are not related to this injury, but to a preexisting condition. You need an attorney when it gets to that point because an attorney will be able to help you navigate the complexities of a legal system.
Advanced Litigation and Importance of an Attorney
Let us make no mistake, the legal system is very complex. When you get into advanced litigation, you first need to have an attorney on your side telling you what you need to do. The most important thing that you can do for your case is to get all the medical treatment that you need to get better. Once you do that, you need to talk to an attorney who is experienced with personal injury cases to make sure that you have everything that you need. A personal injury attorney who encounters these cases regularly knows the treatments that could help you and your case.
So if you feel like you have a significant injury, it is very important to at least talk to a personal injury attorney to make sure that you are covering all your bases. At a minimum, you have to have an attorney at least 18 months after your accident, because you need to look at filing a suit. You do not have to if you don’t want to file a suit, that is up to you. But if you want to qualify an attorney to represent you in your lawsuit, you need to talk to someone at least 18 months after your accident, at least six months before your statute of limitations will expire. That is very important because if you don’t do that, you could lose the right 100% to recover anything.
